Monthly Archives: October 2013

The fourth American Missionary Congress will be held in Maracaibo (Venezuela), from 26 November to 1 December. The theme will be “Missionary disciples of Jesus Christ in a secular and multicultural world”, with the slogan “Missionary America, share your faith”. Let’s go back over the main Congresses and their topics. A path of faith and…

On November 24, almost 5.3 million Hondurans will go to the polls to elect the next president, 128 members of Congress, 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament, and 298 representatives of municipal governments, for four year term, starting in January 2014. Nine political organizations have been authorized to take part in the elections.…

Chileans will go to the polls on November 17 to elect their next president. Former President Bachelet maintains the lead in latest opinion poll. The question, to many, is not whether the Nueva Mayoria (New Majority) pact’s candidate will win, but whether the centre-left New Majority opposition coalition, which brings together a group of…

Rwandan President Paul Kagame may be on his way to extend his stay in office after a second term. A process is under way to decide whether or not the constitution can be changed to allow him to seek a third term when his current term expires in 2017. The prospect of this change has…

On the last 23 September, under the pressure of the diamond industry, the European Union lifted its sanctions on diamond imports from Zimbabwe, the new giant. The atmosphere was euphoric in Antwerp after the “unanimous” decision of the EU 28 member states, which was published on the last 23 Septembre in the EU’s official gazette,…

Citizens of the Great Lakes Region are the latest casualties of the Tanzanian fear of dominance by neighbours. More than 25,000 Burundians and about 7,000 Rwandans have been labeled “illegal immigrants” and expelled from the Kagera region in western Tanzania in less than a month. It is not the first time that Tanzania has expelled…

However, suspicion and tension is growing among EAC states. On one hand Tanzania’s reluctance to participate in EAC meetings has slowed down regional integration. On the other hand, tension and possible war between Rwanda and Tanzania over the ongoing crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo could further weaken regional ties. There is also a…

The Great Lakes region, synonymous with unending crises is headed for a promising future if all plans on paper are implemented and war, as a mode of conflict resolution, is relegated to the past. The region is part of eastern Africa which has the highest economic growth rate in Africa. Most countries in the region…

With an area of nearly 77,000 sq km, Turkana is the largest county in Kenya. It is within the boundaries of the former Rift Valley province. The Turkana are the second largest group of pastoralists in Kenya, 680,000 people, according to the 2009 census. 70% are nomads, with little social structure to tie them down, frequently…

Father Enrique Sánchez, Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries, looks at the first months since Pope Francis’s election to the helm of the universal church. A missionary perspective. Just a few months have passed since Pope Francis was elected bishop of the diocese of Rome, shepherd and guide of the whole Church. Those of us…

The Apostolic Vicariate of Beni spans six of the eight provinces that make up the Amazonian department of Beni, in north-eastern Bolivia. Since 1987, Julio María Elías Montoya, a 67-year-old Spanish Franciscan has been its bishop. Southworld spoke with him in Trinidad, the capital of Beni, about the situation of the indigenous peoples and the…

“The daily experience of the peoples of Mesoamerica is that life exists because there is death. Corn, sown in the fields, dies like all the other seeds, to give birth to a new generation of plants. Death is a part of human existence and of the cosmos.” Unlike Western societies which greatly fear death…